“Forgive me, but how is asking a question making a statement and why is that being rude?”

“That’s why people call you the fake media. You are the enemy of the people. The president is right.”

“How does that make me the enemy of the people? Which people? All people?”

“Real Americans.” he said.

“Can you define real Americans?”

“Your kind probably wouldn’t even know,” I was told.

“What is my kind?” I asked. “Reporters?”

“How do you spell your last name?” he asked.

“What? Why do you ask?”

“See you don’t like it when the shoe’s on the other foot. Answer the question.” he hissed.

“Okay. Karem is a last name.”

“What kind of last name?” he shouted.

“The kind that comes after my first name. Why are you asking?”

“Is that some kind of racial taunt you’re making at me?” he asked.

“No sir. Just asking a question,” I replied.

“No you’re not. Now you’re calling me stupid.”

“Never crossed my mind. Why would you say that?” I asked.

“You think I don’t know what a last name is? You think you’re the only one who is so high and mighty to figure that out?”

I sighed. Now I was getting bored. I sold the guy a subscription, told him how he could find America’s Most Wanted memorabilia and all he really wanted to do was rant and rave against someone he didn’t like.

“You think the president is stupid and that’s why you ask all those questions,” he finally said.

And there it was. Finally.

So for those who think that and many more who believe it: Who are you kidding?

I ask questions because it is my job. I seek answers because I’m curious and I have no idea, really, if the president is stupid.

I know he has lied to me. I know he doesn’t care if he lies to me and I know -as a country - we’re better off knowing what our president is doing and thinking on our behalf.

If I have to ask loudly - then I will. If I have to put up with threats I will. But for the love of all that is holy, please spare me the sanctimony and the long telephone calls.

As a reporter with America’s Most Wanted, and while covering crime and politics in a variety of venues during the 35 years of my career, I’ve seen hope born from despair in the eyes of crime victims, refugees and those suffering in war zones a thousand times.

On July 24, I saw it in the most unlikely of places: The U.S. Congress.

In this national atmosphere of divisiveness marked by vitriol where the overriding narrative is dominated by anger and despair as we feed the wrong wolf (apologies to Chris Cuomo who used this metaphorical tale a few weeks ago and I seem to be beating to death), I was taken aback to find in a joint subcommittee meeting last week with two people from opposite ends of the political spectrum joining together to do their best to end the war against the First Amendment.

“I like working with this guy,” Ohio Congressman (R-4) Jim Jordan said of Maryland Congressman (D-8) Jamie Raskin.

“We’ve worked well together on this issue,” Raskin said in agreement.

The two strange bedfellows are dedicated to passing a national shield law benefitting the Free Press and safeguarding the “Public’s Right to Know,” according to Jordan.

Raskin’s bill, co-sponsored by Jordan for the last year and a half, got its first hearing on July 24 in the joint subcommittee on government oversight.

Raskin gives Jordan full credit for pushing the bill forward into the light and a subcommittee hearing after it languished in obscurity for so long. Jordan says, simply, the time has come to support the First Amendment – a sentiment in direct opposition to the president’s constant barrage of vitriol aimed at the Fourth Estate. The hearing comes less than a month after five staff members at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis died in a mass shooting.

Last Tuesday, President Trump, appearing in Kansas City, Missouri, told an audience not to believe anything they see or read – only to believe him. Trump again berated the Free Press and took us to task calling us - again - “Fake News.”

At the very same time, Jordan and Raskin conducted their hearing in the Rayburn Building. Jordan is an admitted fan of Trump’s who has recently courted his own controversy in the press came together with Raskin – whom Jordan calls “The professor” and is Jordan’s opposite on most issues.

The poignancy of this moment cannot be understated and it is compounded by the sadness there were few reporters or audience members in the room to see hope for our country reborn in not only Jordan and Raskin’s words, but in the words and actions of members of both political parties on the subcommittee who supported the measure.

“I think we’ll get it to the floor of the House for a vote,” both Jordan and Raskin told me afterward.

The bill, hailed by First Amendment advocates as well-researched and written would give reporters a measure of protection from being jailed when they use confidential sources. It is almost a carbon copy of a measure once supported by then-congressman and now Vice President Mike Pence.

“Real reporting cannot go on otherwise,” Jordan said of the need to protect reporters who protect their sources. “We need whistleblowers and determined reporters when the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other members of the government abuse their power.”

“Democracy and its operating principle, the rule of law, require a ground to stand on and that ground is the truth,” Raskin said in his prepared remarks.

“Not everyone can go to congressional hearings, state legislative sessions or county and city council meetings late into the night. Not all of us can travel to war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan or Vietnam to determine the reality of our foreign policies . . . but as citizens we are all equally implicated by these events and invested in ascertaining the truth. This is why we need professional journalists and newspapers to get the information for us,” Raskin added.

When I tweeted out information from the hearing on Tuesday, I was met with a level of scorn I found both amusing and annoying. “What is Jordan up to?” I was asked. “What’s his motive?”

Others wondered if Raskin had “sold out to the dark side of the force.”

We have become so divided it seems the idea of working together for a common cause is now cause for concern.

I cannot and will not question the motives that drove the two men to work together – to do so is folly. But I can examine the facts and the bill, as presented. The legislation is supported by a wide variety of groups supporting the First Amendment. Congressmen on both sides of the aisle spoke to its authenticity and its need. I know first hand it will help.

If there are two wolves struggling inside us all to survive, according to the old proverb Cuomo quoted - one being anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego (there’s a mouthful) – and the other being joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith – which one does this legislation feed?

The wolf that survives is the one you feed, the proverb goes, so does this legislation not feed the preferable wolf?

The joy of the great experiment of this democracy is that of compromise – working together as we all try to move forward toward liberty and justice for all of us. This legislation is about our core values. “I may disagree with what you say, but defend to death your right to say it.” Only two opposites coming together can make this work. Perhaps only Jamie Raskin and Jim Jordan can make this work. That is what makes America the country we all dream it can be - standing up and agreeing to disagree and supporting those who would forever argue against your stances on issues.

It is exceedingly sad that it is being underreported and questioned by those in the media and those who claim they love America.

It benefits the press. It benefits all of us. It has bipartisan support in a Congress well known for little bipartisan support on most issues. It would be to the benefit of all of us if we paid much more attention to productive attempts to work together for the common weal instead of the cacaphony of divisiveness eating away at our cultural soul.

One last note: Toward the end of the movie “Lincoln,” Thaddeus Stevens - as portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones is chastised by a fellow politician for compromising himself in getting the 13th Amendment passed through the House. He is scolded for saying anything to get the amendment to pass - a move which astonishes and angers his political peer. To that, Stevens replies,

“I want the amendment to pass, so that the constitution’s first and only mention of slavery is its absolute prohibition. For this amendment, for which I have worked all my life and for which countless colored men and women have fought and died and now hundreds of thousands of soldiers... No, sir, no, it seems there’s very nearly nothing I won't say.”

The tweet was frightening, anti-American, anti-free press, and alarming. In part it said, "The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media."

I replied to the president's twitter litter, "Let no one mistake what this man is saying: He believes a man who murders journalists, who criminally invaded another country, who poisons his enemies is NOT the enemy of the people - but those who point out these crimes are. @realDonaldTrump who is the real enemy of the people?”

Like Cuomo, I found Trump's tweet undermining and demeaning - particularly after I recently lost friends and colleagues in Annapolis when a crazed gunman entered the Capital Gazette and killed five people with a shotgun.

That loss still stings and the president's inability to summon even a modicum of respect for the dead is unnerving.

"This is ugly and it is unoriginal. But most importantly it is an admission that you hate your country," Cuomo said before citing several historic references that show attacking a free press is a bullying tactic used by demagogues, despots and dictators. All of this is true. I found Cuomo's argument lawyerly, logical and air tight - if you accept the premise.

But making the logical leap to Trump hating his own country?

I don't think so.

In fact, I believe Donald Trump believes that he loves his country. Certainly those who support him believe this and telling them point blank their favorite president hates America will not make any headway with them. It will only add to the divisive nature of our country and keep us from meeting somewhere in the middle to hash out our differences.

Cuomo, a man I respect and call a friend, once recounted the old morality tale of unknown origin attributed to the Cherokees and succinctly described in the movie "Tomorrowland":

Casey Newton: "There are two wolves" … You told me this story my entire life, and now I'm telling you: There are two wolves and they are always fighting. One is darkness and despair, the other is light and hope. Which wolf wins?

Eddie Newton: C'mon, Casey.

Casey Newton: Okay, fine, don't answer.

Eddie Newton: Whichever one you feed.

In the case of Trump and his anti-media sentiments, it is awfully tempting to call the tweet "boring" as some have or evidence of hatred against our country as Cuomo has. I confess upon first seeing this particular bit of Twitter Litter, I too was angry, but after watching Cuomo, I was forced to re-evaluate this opinion for I believe it is feeding the wrong wolf.

Again I say, I do not think Trump hates our country.

Far from it. He was raised here, revels in his notoriety and public profile and firmly believes he is the embodiment of what's great about this country.

But after observing him for the last 18 months from the unique vantage point of being a member of the White House press corps, I believe he's ignorant, scared and narcissistic.

Coming from the world of commercial real estate - a world well known for the need of the gift of blarney, combined with being born with a silver foot in his mouth (Apologies to the late Ann Richards), Trump has never understood nor faced the consequences of his actions.

He's always been able to buy his way out of any trouble he's run into, usually by hiring lawyers to assist in the cleanup.

He cannot do that as president and he displays his ignorance and inability to change by continuing to try and do so.

As a "counter puncher" - or "fighter" to use Sarah Huckabee Sanders description, Trump is always in need of an enemy to provide a counter to whatever narrative he wishes to spin.

The media are a natural group of enemies. Amorphous and generally considered ubiquitous, we provide a foil to his foibles, faults and mistakes.

It is a classic case of "shooting the messenger."

He's been doing it for years and he does it with the instinct of a cornered, rabies infested muskrat.

In truth, Trump does not know what America is for he's never had to live in it. Sheltered, pampered, rich and with a great gift of spinning a tale, America to him is something to sell - no more and no less.

The shining citadel on the hill is only valuable to Donald Trump if he can sell it, brand it and post a "Trump Tower" sign on it.

It's not that he hates America, it is that he's ignorant of America.

He has no great plans for America because he understands very little outside of instant gratification. He has no long term plans because he is ignorant of how to execute them. It is part of the reason why his communication staff stumbles so badly on a daily basis to craft a message.

Doc Holliday: A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of him. He can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.

Wyatt Earp: What does he need?

Doc Holliday: Revenge.

Wyatt Earp: For what?

Doc Holliday: Bein' born.

Our president is insecure and constantly craves attention. I have openly wondered what his father did to him as a child that turned him into the man he seems to be.

Trump gravitates toward people like Russian President Vladmir Putin and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un because he sees them as strong, firm examples of men who bend others to their will. He loves that. He needs that.

For the truth is Donald Trump is filled with self-loathing. I believe he wakes up each morning frightened people will find out he's the fraud he knows himself to be and nothing scares him more.

Donald Trump doesn't hate America.

Donald Trump hates himself - and he's in a position to make the rest of us pay for it.

During the course of my career I’ve often been asked to speak to young reporters and students regarding the art of questioning.

It boils down to “Ask the darn question.”

There is an art to crafting a question and there is a gentle way to proceed with questions depending on the subject, the topic and a variety of other variables including but not limited to the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.

At the end of the day, you must simply pull the trigger and ask the question.

Helen Thomas told me in the White House it wasn’t important to always get a question answered, but it was very important to get them asked.

Sometimes this employs the process of a “megaphone mouth” (those among us who grew up in the last century always think of Sam Donaldson) and sometimes you want to employ tactics similar to Columbo. (Another reference from a different generation. Look it up).

Still, the idea remains to ask the question. If that offends someone – don’t worry about it. I never do.

You are going to meet people who do not want to answer your questions. They will cut you off. They will speak down to you. They will limit your access to them – all in an attempt to thwart the delivery of information to you.

This is particularly true of criminals, some celebrities and most politicians who all want to limit your access to real information for self-serving reasons.

If the person on the receiving end of your question is average at deflection you will get no answer, a non-answer or words that sound like a baby jabbering.

If the one being questioned is good at deflection you may come off as rude, or abrasive for having the audacity to ask someone a question they didn’t want to answer.

“I’m not advocating rudeness . . . but I’m far more concerned about the reporters who are either too afraid or too disinclined to ask a question,” Donaldson said.

Still, many young reporters are intimidated by those in a position of authority or celebrity – not to mention really infamous criminals – and bite their tongue at the risk of seeming rude, outlandish or some other apparently socially unacceptable form of conduct.

And the interview subjects know this and use it to their benefit.

I often implore young reporters not to worry. It is a tactic. Press on. True, it would be exceptionally nice to sit down in a calm atmosphere and have a constructive on-the-record conversation with any office holder, celebrity or nefarious rake, but chances are you’re not going to live in that vacuum.

You live in a world as a reporter where people want to avoid you. Others will judge you and still others will scream for no reason at all – other than the fact they need to feel angry for some reason.

Ignore all of it and ask the question.

Arnaud de Borchgrave, the former editor of the Washington Times once said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” that “Nobody is challenging your right to challenge the president; what I’m challenging is your right to be rude.”

Some firmly believe you must demure to those in power, finding the perfect moment over tea and biscuits to inquire on policy matters while we chat quietly.

“We’re gutless. We’re spineless,” CBS’s Dan Rather once told the Boston Herald. “There’s no joy in saying this, but beginning in the 1980s, the American press by and large somehow began to operate on the theory that the first order of business was to be popular with the person, or organization or institution that you cover.”

There are a wide variety of examples of this attitude in American Journalism today.

I abhor that attitude.

Last week I challenged the White House on their ability to show “empathy” for the young children being ripped from their parents at the U.S. border with Mexico.

Those who didn’t want to discuss that issue said I was trying to make it about me. I was rude.

I’ve been there before. In 1991 it was de Borchgrave speaking about me after I aggressively questioned President George Bush at a news conference and Bush wouldn’t answer my question.

Remember your H.L. Mencken, I coach reporters. Do not get too close to those you cover. Do not make the mistake of believing they are your friends, else; “They come in as newspapermen,” Mencken said. “Trained to get the news and eager to get it; they end as tinhorn statesmen, full of dark secrets and unable to write the truth if they tried.”

A true reporter is an outsider – a disinterested third-party observer who doesn’t mind walking down the middle of the aisle tossing bombs right and left.

Any and all ideas need to be examined. Being a critic of one side doesn’t make you a fan of the other.

At the end of the day you may make a lonely walk, but there is a peace of mind in being true to yourself.

The mailman was early and gave me a shout about something I had no idea about.

Then the garbage man jumped in screaming “Make America Great Again.”

Finally, I had my morning coffee and started thinking in prose once more – though my rock rhyming lingered for a while, that’s for sure.

I switched on the radio – that ancient listening device – and caught Humble Pie’s “30 Days in The Hole.”

Then I felt at home.

Suddenly it all made sense. I wasn’t having a lucid dream. This is reality. In the year 2018 we are now officially through the looking glass.

At the county level in Montgomery, there are politicians who finally understand it is best not to engage trolls on social media. The county wants to get Amazon’s second campus in Montgomery County, but won’t approve necessary road improvements to make it happen.

Meanwhile in Takoma Park, the smog is thick and furious as the city council there bans all nuclear weapons – as if that were an overwhelming problem there. “It’s symbolic,” we’re told. Others with some common sense merely see it as pointless. Meanwhile the NRA is screaming to make handguns cheap and plentiful, along with semi-automatic assault rifles as students continue to get gunned down across the country. Rick Santorum thinks instead of protesting gun violence students would be better off learning CPR and others continue to promote the idea that more guns equals more safety.

Try telling that to those living in a war zone where everyone is heavily armed. If reality is starting to feel like an LSD flashback from the early 80s, then I’m right there with you.

That feeling was enhanced by my visit to my usual hot caffeine dispensary when I asked for a vanilla cappuccino “Bone Dry.” The barista feigned interest and poured me a large cup of milk with a couple of shots of espresso added for good measure instead. As I explained the concept of “Bone Dry” by saying, “Two shots of espresso. A shot of vanilla and a small dollop of foam,” the barista remade the drink exactly as she made it previously. “No milk. Please,” I said. “Just a small dollop of foam.”

“That’s not right.” she returned.

“What?”

“That’s not the way you make it,” she explained to me, not only forgetting the concept of the customer’s always right, but completely blowing the idea of communication.

I walked out of the caffeine dispensary to find a local police officer arguing with someone who’d apparently walked back to his car to find a parking ticket under his windshield.

“I meant to be back here on time,” the driver said. “That should count.”

I wanted to say, “I meant to smile at your ignorance so that should count.”

I minded my own business though and the police officer nodded and politely offered there was little that could be done now since the ticket was in place.

The driver threw the ticket to the ground. I guess it was meant to be a dramatic gesture, but the ticket lazily floated to the ground, ruining the aggressive display of emotion.

Upon return to my office I read another letter to the editor declaring I was the “son of Satan” and a “libtard,” who couldn’t wait to get his “George Soros money.”

After I downed my shot of caffeine sunshine and read my latest professional insult I then began the arduous task of sorting through the day’s news.

“This is the slowest news day of the entire Trump presidency,” someone texted me.

Slow, of course being a relative term. There’s been nothing slow in this country of chaos since the 2016 elections.

The generation that said you couldn’t trust anyone over 30 is now the generation you cannot trust because we’re over 30. Hell many of us are over 60. We sold out. We became the nasty old guys screaming at the kids to stay off our lawn.

Worse, we’ve become the generation armed to the teeth ready to shoot the kids dancing on the front lawn. In a world of endless possibilities that existed to us after the end of the Vietnam War we chose the most destructive, the least productive and most paranoid adventure one can imagine. We made our own Hell on Earth and left it for our children to cleanup. If that doesn’t sound like a scary LSD hangover then I don’t know what does.

Any moment I keep thinking I’ll wake up and it’ll still be 1980 and a future of hope will stand before me.

Then maybe I’ll at least understand why I keep singing “The Weight” and “30 Days in the Hole” in my head.

Sixteen-year-old baccalaureate student Nimah Nayel is a victim of the old racism and hate, long existent and awful in its scope.

This vile hatred, the antithesis of the American Spirit stayed dormant and seemingly was swept away into the dustbin of history where it belongs until the minions of Donald Trump took his racist and hate-filled rhetoric primetime and brought back the hatred with a vengeance. Nayel, who ran for the student spot on the Montgomery County Board of Education, got a host of nasty emails which included threats to shoot up the schools, encouraged her to “choke on your hijab” and accused her of being a whore, a terrorist and encouraged her to leave the country.

The confirmed incident has been met with somewhat muted silence. Rockville mayor Bridget Newton said she did not even know about it until contacted by The Sentinel.

The Rockville police are investigating, but there has been little reaction until The Sentinel began pursuing the story – other than a tweet from MCPS saying “We are deeply sorry that you received these hateful messages.”

Nayel, who initially became upset when she read the emails had to read a host of extremely nasty insults aimed at her religion and her gender. One email sender listed the name as “MAGA,” as in “Make America Great Again.”

The allusion to President Trump is worth noting for a couple of reasons. There is no way Trump had anything directly to do with the incident and members of his press staff have been quick to denounce any such racist activity in the past linked to his slogan “Make America Great Again.”

But that’s hardly the point. Trump’s courting of the extreme right has led us here – to two Americas. One is inclusive and one far more divisive than most have experienced since the Vietnam War.

Those who wrap themselves in the flag while denouncing immigrants as “animals” and believe all Muslims are terrorists, or that African Americans deserve to be treated with less respect than whites are the problem – not the solution.

There is nothing normal about this. There is nothing acceptable about it.

Nayel said she tried to look at the hate-spewing messages as if they were intended to be humorous.

She is a far better person than I, for when I read the emails I wanted to find the writer and deliver something other than laughter to him or her.

I remember well the riots of the ‘60s, the battle for Civil Rights and the hatred that included lynchings and different water fountains. I remember Martin Luther King Jr. saying we could reach the mountain top while Robert Kennedy preached hope, only to see that hope die when assassins took King and Kennedy.

We sit today on a precipice. On one side are the hopes of a people and a world where we can all learn to live together and help one another. On the other side: civil war.

I’m not singing Kumbaya. I’m talking about difficult struggles to accept one another for who we are, to celebrate our differences and work hard together whether we agree with or even like one another.

My first football coach told me I didn’t have to like the guy next to me, but I damn sure had to work with him for the benefit of the team.

That’s what we face now. We are staring right into the abyss. Do we choose to survive and thrive, or die in a divisive war of attrition, hating, baiting and shaming each other until violence overtakes us and the basest behaviors are pandered to with ruinous results?

This isn’t politics. This is humanity. The comedian Bill Hicks once said, “This is where we are at right now, as a whole. No one is left out of the loop. We are experiencing a reality based on a thin veneer of lies and illusions. A world where greed is our God and wisdom is sin, where division is key and unity is fantasy, where the ego-driven cleverness of the mind is praised, rather than the intelligence of the heart.”

Instead of Hicks’ dream, we have a bunch of hate-spewing emails aimed at a 16-year-old Muslim student at Richard Montgomery High School. We should do better.

We are living in a world where if you aren’t white-bred, Jesus-loving, gun-toting Americans then you are somehow less than human – you’re an animal.

My prayers go out to Nayel. My empathy goes out to her and her family. She is of the family of Man. We are all brothers and sisters.

I was taught, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers – that you do unto me.”

That was what I learned from Jesus. From Martin Luther King, Jr. I learned compassion.

From Robert Kennedy I learned hope. From John Lennon I learned to give peace a chance.

ROCKVILLE – In the final month of the Democratic Primary campaign, four of the top Democratic candidates for governor, and two other candidates’ running mates, continued a “violent agreement” on discussions that the candidates had with one another in a debate on May 21.

Former NAACP CEO Ben Jealous, State Senator Richard Madaleno (D-18), former U.S. State Department official Alec Ross and former Policy Director for First Lady Michelle Obama Krishanti Vignarajah all participated in the debate. Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker, III, and Baltimore businessman Jim Shea sent their running mates, prosecutor Elizabeth Embry and Baltimore City Council member Brandon Scott.

The debate, like most Democratic primary forums began and ended with attempts at knocking Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) record on jobs, schools and lack of opposition to President Donald J. Trump.

“This thing you read about that ‘Maryland is open for business,’ that is total and complete bullshit,” Ross said.

Ross, a former Baltimore City School teacher, chastised Hogan’s record on Maryland economic growth saying it is a misnomer that the businessman turned governor has a strong record on the economy.

Ross has tried to position himself as a problem-solving Democrat, not tied to the party’s orthodoxy. At the debate, Ross was critical of the state’s record on taxes and regulations saying Maryland is not a welcoming place to start-ups.

Jealous, who has the endorsement of former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sander (I-Vt.), has positioned himself as one of the more progressive candidates in the race, promising to bring a single-payer Medicare for all style healthcare system to the state if elected governor.

“We can stretch our health dollars further if we switch to single-payer,” Jealous said.

Jealous proposed paying for a state single-payer healthcare system by increasing taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent residents and by cutting funds from the state’s criminal justice budget by reducing the prison population through expanding the Justice Reinvestment Act.

Madaleno, who was first elected to the General Assembly in 2002, disagreed with Jealous on health care saying the current system, the Affordable Care Act - or more commonly referred to as “Obamacare” - which subsidized insurance plans through a state exchange is working for Maryland.

At the debate, Madaleno positioned himself as a long-time progressive who led the charge on major policy changes in Annapolis including the repeal of the death penalty and the passage of marriage equality. In response to a question about Hogan’s popularity, among the highest in the nation for governors, Madaleno said Hogan is popular in Maryland because the Democratic-controlled General Assembly pushed Hogan toward the center.

“Over and over we have forced Larry Hogan to run to govern like a Democrat. He’s popular because this is a Democratic state,” Madaleno said.

For most of the night, each of the candidates resisted the urge to refute one another, insisting to add onto the previous candidates’ statements. While each candidate promised to deliver on infrastructure spending with candidates like Scott and Ross specifically mentioning funding for Baltimore's proposed Red Line and funding for the MARC train, Vignarajah said if elected governor, she would focus on investing in green energy.

“Infrastructure to me also includes the fact that we need to invest in offshore wind as well as clean energy, solar energy,” Vignarajah said.

Vignarajah has labeled herself as “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” and has referenced that she is the only woman running for governor in the race. Vignarajah said Hogan has been silent on the issues facing Maryland most notably the Trump Administration’s policies on immigration, the environment and healthcare.

Filling in for Baker, Embry touted her running mate’s experience of growing Prince George’s County’s economy after years of stagnation and government corruption.

Embry, who lead the Attorney General’s Criminal Division, said she watched Baker transform Prince George’s County from afar, mentioning that she was impressed that Baker had made such progress into turning the county into one of the economic and environmental leaders of the state after his predecessor, Jack B. Johnson, pleaded guilty to extortion and evidence and witness tampering.

“He transformed Prince George’s County through his leadership,” Embry said of Baker.

In place of Shea, Scott said Democrats were responsible for Hogan’s election by becoming out of touch with voters. Scott said Maryland’s education has fallen behind under Hogan’s leadership and calling it a “civil rights violation” that the state has not fully funded its education system.

Scott also hit Hogan on transportation infrastructure saying Hogan “walked away” from building the Red Line subway transit rail in Baltimore, instead opting for funding for adding lanes on highways like I-270 and I-495.

“We know that they [the Hogan Administration] don’t invest in 21st Century technology as far as public transportation and we have to do that,” Scott said.

The only thing worse than a Republican is a Democrat. One is venal and vile. The other is clueless.

I was discussing the problems of politics with a candidate’s surrogate the other day and it dawned on me there are people who still do not understand why Donald Trump got elected to the highest office in the United States.

Many want to merely dismiss his supporters as being stupid. Some want to dismiss their neighbors as being racists or misogynists for supporting him while still others who love Trump are labeled as traitors.

The Trump supporters on the other hand have labeled those who oppose Trump traitors, racists, misogynists and stupid – but in fairness, so has the president. While both sides of the aisle retreat to their side of the sandbox and act like toddlers with loaded diapers, some of us are still scratching our heads and wonder how this all came to pass.

Money is part of the problem, as is gerrymandering. A lack of education hinders any effort to elect candidates with any mental prowess, but the truth of the matter is we are all victims of our own success. The problems of Gaza, Iran, most of the Middle East, Asia, Russia, China and Africa have not visited our shores. Even the poorest among us are not as bad off as those starving to death in many regions of the world. It is easy to cast a blind eye at refugees when we seem so flush with success here.

Still, the American people are not nearly as misogynistic, hate-filled or racist as each side of the aisle would have us believe. I find most people would actually care and reach out to help those in need if they actually understood the situation. But sadly we are blinded by our own fears and politics.

Thus it boils down to education.

Those who are students of politics, or observe and report on world events daily have by proximity a keener understanding of the situation – but when the president calls you “Fake News” and “the enemy of the people,” it becomes harder to cut through the clutter to make a difference when everything is seen through the prism of politics. It becomes more problematic when reporters get things wrong. True, we are human and bound to get things wrong – but for those who are looking for a reason to despise us it becomes easier to do so with each mistake we make.

Truth be told, we have never, nor will we ever play error-free baseball. We are just human. But for those who do not have the convenience of proximity to events it is becoming easier and easier to dismiss what newspapers, television, radio and the Internet news produce as we sink into our intellectual cul-de-sacs and rage at the dying of the light.

And so it becomes harder and harder to get to the source of our ennui even as we become more convinced there is a problem.

That is precisely why Donald Trump was elected and what the Democrats still do not understand. Many Americans may not know precisely what is wrong – but they know things are awry. Along comes Trump screaming about criminals in politics, draining the swamp and helping out the little guy and it resonates as surely as a guitar solo in an epic rock n’ roll romp.

Many hear the words and react. We are tired of business as usual. We are tired of the suffering, the crumbling infrastructure and as we look out at the world we fear we may go the way of other great civilizations.

The Democrats continue to believe by merely shouting that Trump is a charlatan and playing by the old rules, they can regain their power and right the ship of state. However, the Democrats are akin to the heckler at a magic show screaming the magician is faking it. We all know it. Some of us enjoy it. Some of us love to be fooled and some of us do not care.

In other words, Trump remains the epitome of the system – not its aberration. If Democrats wish to overturn the tide then they need to sell a better message to the voter than “he’s a criminal.”

Americans are used to criminals holding office – we elect them to those positions often enough. We elect liars and charlatans and morons. Our politicians are, as H.L. Mencken once noted, a “standing subversion of the public good in every rational sense.”

Trump is merely the latest in a long line of empty-headed imbeciles to prey upon the common wealth – as Mencken would say. That the Democrats are shouting loud and long about it is a fine and funny thing to me – coming as it does from a party that had a president who routinely lied about his infidelities and one who claimed to support freedom while jailing whistleblowers.

This will not make me popular among Democrats or Republicans, but I do not really care.

In this country the voters reap what they sow. That we are harvesting weeds is in the words of Robert Plant – “Nobody’s Fault But Mine.” Remember we’re all just another “Fool in the Rain.”

Programming my own music on YouTube is one the last pleasures a diehard rock n’roll fan has left to look forward to in this topsy-turvy world.

Miguel is fine, but I like my guitar solos, back beats and a signature rock lyric.

Yes, I know I’m dating myself, but Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Beatles, David Bowie, Lou Reed and a few others still really get my blood flowing.

And let us face it, us old farts need to keep our blood flowing.

Everyone grows older if they are lucky, but there are some things from childhood I absolutely refuse to part with until they pull the shroud over my eyes that one last time.

Imagine my consternation then when the Jim Carroll Band’s “People Who Died” is interrupted by a David Blair ad.Blair, who is running for Montgomery County Executive is another rich guy who got in the race because he is made enough money that he believes he’s now qualified to jump into politics, make more money and tell us all how to live our lives.

Blair standing in front of the White House making his pitch was enough to make me gag - particularly since I would just left the White House and gagging is a natural reflex these days when going to Washington, D.C.

Of course, David Trone is also on YouTube these days making a pitch for his ability to lead us in Congress.

His pitch comes with an appeal to his roots on a family farm.

It is not that either one of these men’s pitches are disingenuous ,though they may be, but they are merely annoying.

Reflecting what substitutes for leadership these days - wads of sweaty cash - both men are telling me how great they are at leading, but when they never directly tell what it is they are great at doing when it comes to leading a government.

Business is not government - though President Donald Trump would have you believe otherwise.

Still, George Leventhal’s silly Facebook posts are at least more honest than Trone’s and Blair’s pitches.

Rose Krasnow and Mark Elrich seem like sound statesmen by comparison.

Roger Berliner is still Roger Berliner.

I have the pleasure of knowing most of the people running for county executive and they are fine human beings.

But if today’s politics shows us anything, it is that anyone with enough scratch in their pocket to buy an extra house is busy investing in public office.

Maybe it is they believe they can do a better job than those who have been working in public service all these years.

Or maybe it is a way to feather their own nests.

I am not accusing anyone of anythin, I am merely asking if you are so civic-minded, why did not you start at the grassroots level and learn what it means to work the levers of government rather than coming up to the poker table with a wide grin, big stake and a hearty appetite for attention?

American politics is beset by fools and unscrupulous curs who are more interested in how government can be used to best serve their self-interest.

Gerrymandering districts has divided the voting public. Money lubricates the system and those with a few million in their pockets are more attracted today than it seems at any time in our recent history in running for office.

A reasonable man wants to know why, a cynical man thinks he knows why and I strive to find out why on a daily basis.

We are in the middle of one of the most difficult times ever in the history of our republic.

Our divisive nature is nurtured from the top down via money and gerrymandering.

Mencken’s sobriquet regarding politicians never rang truer: Today we choose our politicians as we buy bootleg whiskey - never knowing what it is we are getting but we are only certain that those who are elected to office are not what they pretend to be.

Further, Mencken said, “of late the fraud has become so gross that the plain people begin to show a great restlessness under it. Like animals in a cage, they trot from one corner to another, endlessly seeking a way out. If the Democrats win one year, it is a pretty sure sign that they will lose the next year . . . an evil circle is formed.”

We have been living in this evil circle since Mencken’s time. It has become a superhighway of money, meanness and shallowness representing itself as critical thought.

I am not telling anyone how to vote, but imploring voters to look beyond commercials and smiles.

At the local level meet the candidates and do the same at the state and federal level when you can.

My dad taught me a lot of things growing up. Some I can share, but some would be best left to late night conversations after imbibing some Wild Turkey. One of the things that sticks in my addled, aging mind is that it is best to “shut the hell up and let everyone think you are an idiot, rather than opening your mouth and getting your butt beat because everyone found out you’re an idiot.”

I know, there are plenty of other interpretations of that particular saying from dear old dad - but his sticks with me.

Obviously Kanye West, Donald Trump and several Montgomery County candidates for council and county executive could have used the services of Dear Old Dad.

Kanye never met a foot he could not stuff in his mouth and he certainly did it this week.

First declaring his unadulterated love for Donald Trump and then when he told a TMZ crew (on camera for the world to see, no less) that 400 years of slavery in the United States was “a choice.”

Four hundred years. Slavery. That is nearly twice as long as this country has existed.

I have no idea what the choice was. My 7-year-old nephew who has no cultural stigma aligned with slavery realizes slavery was anything but a choice.

I guess a slave could have chose to work in the field until you died, or refused to work in the field and got whipped or shot to death.

Kanye tried to tweet his way out of the debacle after being schooled by an African-American TMZ reporter by saying he realized that the people brought over on boats in chains did not have a choice.

But afterward it was more like “mental slavery.”

The bullwhip was not mental and mental slavery is still slavery, but what do I know.

Meanwhile Donald Trump once again put his foot in his mouth more times in one week than seems humanly possible for any sentient human being who has come of age.

To recount all of his indiscretions just this week against humanity would take more room than I have got in this column and could probably fill the newspaper. (Note to self - consider doing a special “Trump lies and foolish statements” edition for the future).

Finally, David Blair, running for Montgomery County executive has bought enough advertising on the Internet to pay for another David Trone campaign for whatever Trone is trying to convince people he is able to handle in whatever legislative environment would have him.

Blair’s commercials include one shot outside of the White House, but feature the lackluster would-be politician trying to buy his way into the hearts and minds of Montgomery County voters the same way Trone tried when he lost a congressional seat to Jamie Raskin.

The highlight of my day this morning was seeing a Trone ad trying to convince me Trone was a poor country boy and then seeing an ad trying to convince me how qualified Blair is for county executive.

The ads are part of the Trump revolution of candidates with little qualification - other than a big wallet - buying their way into legislatures, courthouses and congress.

It did not work with Montgomery voters when Trone tried it, but look at the success of President “Witch Hunt” Trump.

It’s got to work again with someone from the Democrats who really means well - right?

There is nothing this country will not sell or buy and usually we will do it for cheaper than Trone and Blair wish to purchase it.

However, that being said, I fall back on my dad’s sage advice.

There should be a rule that if you are going to run for any office, you have to publish a damn position paper, or have actively volunteered or worked in some capacity for the greater good before you can run for office.

You should not be able to shoot your mouth off claiming to be a politician for the people when all you have ever done is prey upon the common weal without helping the common wealth.

Gerrymandering districts, political offices seemingly up for sale and leaders who are anything but have all contributed to help destroy the foundation of our democracy.

I remain convinced the only thing worse than an arrogant, self-righteous Republican is an arrogant, self-righteous Democrat.

American politics remains two fountains of raw sewage. Both sides believe they are drinking an elixir and believe the other side is drinking poison.

Both sides remain exactly half right. They cannot see their own foibles, but relish in pointing out the mistakes of their friends.